FIRST PLAYPRS SE NF3
Has PRS gone a little bolt-on mad? Well, certainly in the Indonesianmade SE line, it’s bolt-ons that have been the recent trend in terms of new releases. Only a little while back we saw the SE CE 24 and Swamp Ash Special, both based on historic PRS designs, then earlier this year the superb stripped-down (both in style and price) SE CE 24 Standard Satin, which added to the bolt-on choice behind the more established SE Silver Sky. Typically for PRS, those new bolt-ons are all twin-humbucking guitars (although the Swamp Ash Special does add a mid-placed single coil), but this new NF3 introduces a trio of hum-cancelling Narrowfield DD ‘S’ pickups, Indonesian-made interpretations of those units used on the more T-style NF 53 that launched in 2023.
There’s a familiarity about the NF3 that recalls PRS’s first attempt to crack the Stratocaster-style market, the first-series EG 3 (SSS) and EG 4 (HSS), which appeared briefly back in 1990 before they were redesigned into the more PRS-like EG II series, which lasted until 1995. The EG did reappear, again briefly, in the SE range back in 2004 but as a three-single-coil, all-mahogany set-neck with stoptail or vibrato, and then an HSS variant.
It’s not even the first PRS to use the NF3 name. Another short-lived bolt-on, the original NF3 was produced from 2011 to 2013 and used three 57/08 Narrowfield humbuckers, with a 641mm (25.25-inch)
